Marilyn Kallet is the author of 18 books, including How Our Bodies Learned, The Love That Moves Me and Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, poetry from Black Widow Press. She has translated Paul Eluard’s Last Love Poems, Péret’s The Big Game, and co-translated Chantal Bizzini’s Disenchanted City. Her other volumes include children’s books, essays, anthologies of women’s literature.

Dr. Kallet is Nancy Moore Goslee Professor of English––soon to be Professor Emerita––at the University of Tennessee, where she has taught for 37 years. For a decade, she has also lead poetry workshops for VCCA-France, in Auvillar.

She has performed her poems on campuses and in theaters across the United States as well as in France and Poland, as a guest of the U.S. Embassy’s “America Presents” program.

Dr. Kallet is available for poetry readings and workshops for adults and for children.

The University of Tennessee lists her as a specialist in poetry’s role in times of crisis, poetry and healing, poetry and humor, and poetry and Jewish identity.

SCHEDULE AS POET LAUREATE

Kallet read her poem entitled Knoxville Love Song at the Festival on the Fourth in World's Fair Park, July 4, 2018.

WBIR Video of Marilyn Kallet

Kallet with K9 Officer Bruno and Officer Jeffrey Quirin

Kallet and participants from the "Writing Praise Poems in Troubled Times" poetry workshop in San Bernardino. Kallet is available to lead this workshop for any civic or community groups.

Kallet at the Founders Day Luncheon

Kallet with San Bernardino Police Department Spokesdog Sherlock

Kallet at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center vigil

Kallet with performance poet and UT Alum Taria Person at The Secret City Poetry Night at Oak Ridge Civic Center

Kallet wrote a special poem for the ribbon-cutting of the Violins of Hope exhibit.

Kallet with Linda Parsons at the Poets in the Garden event - a fundraiser for Botanical Gardens

Time with East Tennessee Freedom School students reading "The Red Wheelbarrow" and doing illustrations

July 4, 2018
Kallet read her poem entitled Knoxville Love Song at the Festival on the Fourth at the World's Fair Park in Knoxville

July 18, 2018Kallet worked with Officer Jeffrey Quirin and K-9 Officer Bruno of the University of Tennessee Police Department inspiring numerous Poems about K-9 Officer Bruno
July 31, 2018Poetry reading of Saying Goodbye and other poems at the Flenniken Landing Residents' Inaugural Art Show

September 13, 2018
Kallet read her poem This Green for the East Tennessee PBS "The Great American Read" series

October 29, 2018
Kallet read her poem The Tree of Life at the Arnstein Jewish Community Center during the vigil held to honor those who passed during the mass shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue on October 27, 2018.

November 2, 2018
Poetry reading with Joseph Woods and Erin E. Smith at the Secret City Poetry Night at the Oak Ridge Civic Center

November 14-15
Creative writing workshops at West High School

November 27, 2018
Poem about Mister Clooney, a medical alert dog with the UT College of Veterinary Medicine's H.A.B.I.T. Program

December 8, 2018
Poetry Reading and Chanukah Stories at 5 p.m. at The Bird & The Book at Southland Books, 1505 E. Broadway Avenue, Maryville, TN

January 4, 2019
Read poem entitled Violins of Hope, Knoxville at the ribbon cutting of the "Violins of Hope" exhibit at the UT Downtown Gallery at 106 Gay St.

January 12, 2019
Read poems entitled Sometimes and Last Words at the memorial for Dr. Arthur Smith. Smith was a mentor to thousands of UT students and an award-winning poet who taught at UT for more than three decades.

March 28, 2019
Poetry reading and workshop at the Johnson City Library

April 5, 2019
Read poem entitled University of Tennessee Memorial Poem at the university's annual memorial service to honor students, faculty and staff who have passed away during the current academic year

June 7-18, 2019
Mentor for “Writing the River” residency in Auvillar, France. Sponsored by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Each spring since 2009, Kallet has mentored an atelier of poets in Auvillar. A poetry presentation was held on June 17 at Chapelle Ste. Catherine au port, Auvillar which included Kallet and invited poets Lucy Anderton, Deborah Harper Bono, Hannah Cook Cross, Christine Parkhurst, Tim Suermondt and Pui Yin Wong.

September 19, 2019
Attending the celebration for U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Library of Congress. Her reading begins at 7 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium. Joy Harjo’s reading is open to the public. Get there early!
October 23, 2019 - 11 a.m.
Knoxville Writers’ Group, Cedar Bluff Holiday Inn.